


kidnapped

by littlemiss_m



Series: Whumptober 2018 [8]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: (just some nameless faceless bad guys), Hurt Prompto Argentum, Kidnapping, Minor Character Death, Prompto Argentum Needs a Hug, off-screen violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2019-09-02 05:05:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16780174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlemiss_m/pseuds/littlemiss_m
Summary: Nyx and his team are sent to retrieve the prince's missing friend.





	kidnapped

A very exact three days after Prompto Argentum was formally declared as missing, Nyx led his team into an abandoned warehouse praying to Ramuh they weren't yet late. Three days at the hands of professional kidnappers was a long time, after all, especially as there had been no queries after ransoms of any kind, no hints of a ploy to harm the Crown or anyone else. At the same time, everyone had immediately agreed that the Argentum kid was too close to the prince for the kidnapping to be a coincidence, and so they were left with one end result only – that the kid had been taken for an interrogation. None of the available options were the nice kind, but as Nyx thought of the chirpy blond boy and the atrocities he was most likely facing at the hands of his captors, Nyx felt his blood freeze in his veins.

He'd never met the kid, but he'd seen him – at the Citadel, around the city, hanging off of the prince's shoulders and beaming wide at puppies and children alike – and for Nyx, that had been more than enough. No-one deserved to be kidnapped, but of all the people surrounding the Crown, Prompto Argentum was easily one of the kindest.

After getting the clear from the surveillance team, Nyx warped into the building, a small handful of Glaives with him, a few other teams tackling the sprawling warehouse from different directions. The blueprints they'd memorized weren't 100% true anymore, but they gave him and his team enough of a clue that moving through the building was easy enough a task, corners and shadowy staircases secured as they pressed on. At first, the rooms and corridors they moved through were all empty and devoid of life, covered in hefty layers of dust and grime, but then – a trail on the ground, as if many pairs of feet had trambled the dust away, a hint that had Nyx bracing himself as he signaled his team to a stop.

They found the kid at the end of the trail.

He hung from a thick metal beam high in the ceiling, lenghts of bristly rope holding his arms so high above his head that Nyx flinched instinctively, his eyes sweeping through the room in search of the kidnappers. The space was empty, but at the sound of the Glaives arriving, Prompto had looked up with watery eyes that appeared to see far less than they should have, fear evident on his face, but after a moment of staring, his expression crumbled.

”They went–” he bit out, sobs raking his body, and Nyx rushed forward to him. ”They went–”

The kid couldn't finish his sentence from his cries, but he kept on glancing at the second door in the room. Nyx nodded at Crowe who immediately dashed for the door, half of the group following her without need for specific orders, leaving Nyx, Libertus, and Tredd to tend to Prompto. Nyx couldn't say how long he'd been hanging like this but his shoulders were purple with bruises, his skin a mess of thin scrapes and sluggishly bleeding wounds, yet – though Prompto cried out when Nyx prodded at his torso, feeling for injuries not visible to the bare eye, he couldn't feel anything he hadn't already detected with his eyes.

”They just left,” Prompto whispered, his face twisted into a grimace of pain. Nyx nodded and hummed, glanced up at the ropes and then at the kid's feet, the naked toes torn bloody by a rough concrete floor they could barely reach in the first place, and shared a quick look with Libertus and Tredd, who was murmuring messages into his earpiece. They nodded.

”That's okay, we've got other teams in the building, they'll catch the bad guys in no time,” Nyx spoke, keeping an ear on the discussion taking place over the radio channels. The medics wouldn't be arriving until the entire area was secure, which would still take a while. ”Okay, Prompto, here's the deal: we need to get you down, but since it looks like you've been hanging for a while, that's probably gonna hurt a lot. We can't do anything about that right now, but I promise the medics are on their way and that we'll get you outta here, okay? Things are only getting better from here, I promise.”

The kid was already sobbing before Nyx even finished speaking. Libertus and Tredd both moved closer, the latter holding onto the dagger, and without asking for permission, Nyx wrapped his arms around Prompto's torso and hoisted him up by just an inch, holding him firmly even as he screamed and wailed into his chest. Tredd wasted no time in cutting through the ropes and Libertus grabbed both arms, holding them still.

The maneuver was over within seconds, but the pain would be following Prompto for hours if not days. As slow as he could, Nyx lowered himself down on the floor, until the kid sat straddling his lap; behind him, Libertus stood still holding onto a pair of trembling arms, slowly rubbing life back into them. A moment later, Tredd joined him and took the other arm from him.

”It hurts,” Prompto wailed, his face buried in the crook of Nyx' neck. ”It hurts, it hurts, it hurts–”

The shrill, pained chant lasted until Libertus and Tredd had slowly lowered Prompto's arms down to Nyx' shoulders, from where they immediately flopped down, useless and flabby as if the kid had no control over them.

”It's just pins and needles, kid,” Nyx murmured, holding Prompto tight against his chest while he continued to wail. His earpiece crackled to life and he paused to listen to the message, sighing in relief over what he heard. ”Everything's gonna be just fine in no time at all. We caught the bad guys so the medics are cleared to enter, I promise it won't be long anymore.”

He felt Prompto nod against his chest, and though he was still trembling and sniffling, the worst of his cries had began to quiet. ”I didn't tell them anything,” the kid murmured into Nyx' neck. ”I swear I didn't – I didn't say anything, I swear–”

”That's great, Prompto,” Nyx cut in, ignoring the constricting feeling in his chest. ”You've done amazing. Hey, can you tell me how many people there were here, earlier? You said they'd just left before we got here.”

”T-three,” Prompto answered, furrowing closer until Nyx pressed his palms against his lower back. ”But the – the boss wasn't here, and the two others had already gone too. They wanted to, they wanted to know about Noct but I didn't tell them anything, I promise, not even what classes he's taking at school, I didn't I promise I didn't–”

”Shh, I believe you,” Nyx hushed, glancing at Libertus and Tredd where they were guarding the two exits. They were both murmuring into their earpieces, so quiet that he could only make out their words thanks to the radio connection. ”You've done so well, kid, everyone will be really proud of you when they hear about it. But let's not worry about that now, okay? Look, the medics are here, they're gonna take good care of you while we wrap everything up here. See, there they come?”

At the first entrance, Libertus had stopped the medics, who only began to advance once Prompto had twisted to face them. Even as they set their bags down and crouched down on the floor, Nyx continued to hold onto Prompto, who – not _afraid_ , but overwhelmed and stressed to his absolute limits – still cried and shook as the first medic began to prod at him with care. Very briefly, Nyx wondered how long it had been since the last the kid slept, or the last time he'd eaten or drunk something, but soon the medics were pulling them apart in favor of helping Prompto onto the stretcher, and so he let the thoughts pass.

Standing up, Nyx stretched his legs and walked up to where Prompto lay bundled into a space blanket. ”It's gonna be okay, kid,” he murmured, giving Prompto's fingers a soft squeeze. ”You take care of yourself, okay?”

Bleary, hazy eyes blinked up at him. ”Uh-huh,” Prompto murmured, nodding in a jerky motion. ”I, ah – thanks.”

Nyx grinned and patted the bed. ”No problem, kid,” he said, moving back when a medic kicked at the lever locking the bed's wheels in place. ”Just take care, yeah? I'm sure your buddies are all waiting for you at the Citadel – they've all been real worried over you.”

There was not one lie in Nyx' words – the prince and his retinue had been near their breaking points within moments of them realizing their friend had gone missing – yet the twitchy expression on Prompto's face made him wonder if the kid actually knew how much he mattered. Shaking his head, Nyx watched the medics wheel him out of the room, two glaives standing guard over them, counting quieting footsteps before turning back to Tredd and Libertus.

”So one of them slipped?” he sighed, running his fingers through his hair. ”No sign of them at all?”

Tredd shook his head, lips piched tight. ”Two dead bodies, bullet wounds in the back, then finished off after they'd fallen,” he explaining, pointing a finger gun at his own head. ”The other teams are still on the look-out, but...”

”Yeah,” Nyx agreed, sighing again. If Prompto's words had been true, then they had already entered the building missing the boss and two of the underlings, and now two of the remaining three had ended up dead. Groaning, Nyx pressed his palms against his face for a second or two, then flopped them down to his hips as his gaze panned the room. ”Well, let's get back to work, then.”

Clapping his hands together, Nyx stepped towards the second door. They'd meet with Crowe's group somewhere, and then – then they'd do whatever they were ordered to do, and hopefully come out of with enough information to find the rest of the assailants. Pushing aside the thoughts of Prompto's pained cries and the exhausted terror in his eyes, Nyx slipped into the next hallway, weapons at ready, and moved forward.


End file.
